


Five times Peter “helped” Bucky + One time it was the other way around.

by Talavin



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Amazing Spider-Man (Movies - Webb), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Fluff, Happy Ending, M/M, POV Peter Parker, So much fluff you might drown in it, self-indulgent fic where everything ends happy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-18
Updated: 2015-08-18
Packaged: 2018-04-15 11:13:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4604580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Talavin/pseuds/Talavin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Peter keeps showing up and trying to help Bucky out, even when he doesn't really need it all that much. Bucky tries to show him that they could be a lot better if they just worked together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five times Peter “helped” Bucky + One time it was the other way around.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm currently trying to write a multi-chapter Bucky/Peter fic and I wrote this guy to try to motivate me. It was meant to be about 3k and ended up twice as long. This was literally supposed to be a ball of fluff that was only meant to whet my Bucky/Peter appetite, but somehow it grew the semblance of a plot. Alright, hopefully you'll enjoy this as much as I liked writing it!
> 
> There shouldn't be any trigger warnings necessary that I can think of. There is the tiniest, briefest mention of something that can be interpreted as suicidal, but it isn't meant that way. If something comes up, please let me know and I'll be sure to edit this! This really is a feel-good piece that should serve as a nice palate-cleanser for a lot of the heavy stuff in these fandoms.

Five times Peter “helped” Bucky + One time it was the other way around.

 

1.

Spiderman swung around from building to building, simultaneously hoping that he’d find a civilian in need of rescuing but also that there wouldn’t be anything. He was keyed up and he needed a good fight to get it out of his system; Peter hadn’t been able to escape thoughts about Gwen today, and nothing cleared his system like beating up on bad guys. However, he felt a little guilty about wishing for a fight. He should want for there to be no crime and everything to be dandy. Alright, he was a pretty lousy superhero. 

He aborted his swing above an alleyway, landing silently on a wall. Below him were all the classic signs of a mugging. One man was alone, being cornered by two mean looking jerks in ski masks, holding guns. Peter felt a thrum of excitement. 

“Trust me, pal, this won’t end well for you.” 

Strangely, that line didn’t come from the muggers, but from the potential victim. The man looked almost bored, hands in his pockets and posture slumped casually. With his keen sight, though, Peter could tell that there was a wary look in the man’s eyes. The victim was tracking the pistols carefully. He was completely covered in a sweatshirt and jeans that were tucked into combat boots. His hair was long and framed his face. It was a nice face, Peter noticed, very well formed and with a killer jawline. 

Right, no time for being distracted by oddly attractive mugging victims. Time to go be a hero and rescue the guy. (Maybe he’d be so grateful that he wouldn’t mind Peter ogling his physique a little? Okay, no that’s creepy. Head out of the gutter). Spiderman swung down and landed audibly behind the muggers. He’d learned that it was best to divert the bad guys’ attention towards him so that there was less of a chance of innocent bystanders getting hurt in the crossfire. 

“Hey! Jerks! Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?” Peter couldn’t help but glance over to the super hot- uh… he meant the obviously innocent man needing help. The guy just looked amused. Okay, maybe ‘someone your own size’ wasn’t the best line. The other man was taller and bulkier than him. 

“Crap, it’s Spiderman!” The two criminals immediately tried to bolt, but he was blocking their path out of the alley. It was quick work to web them up and saunter over towards the hot guy. (Crud! Peter _had_ to stop thinking creepy things!)

“Hey!” he chimed brightly. “Sorry about that. You should be safe now. Do you need me to take you home?”

Peter mentally scolded himself. Take him home? Spiderman never took anyone home. God, he seriously needed to get laid. He was being a total weirdo. 

Oblivious to his mental scolding session, the other man just grinned wryly. “I think I’ll be alright, actually.” The guy started walking past him, not even giving a passing glance to the struggling criminals. He stopped and pulled his right hand out of his pocket, wrapping it loosely around Peter’s bicep. “Thanks for the assist though, Spiderman.” He squeezed for an instant before he let go and made his way easily out of the alley. 

The teenager stared at his back. “Holy crap, that was super cool,” he muttered. He resolved to keep an eye out for the guy in the future. After all it wouldn’t do for such an attractive- erm, such a nice man to get hurt, now would it?

2.

Peter usually stayed in Queens as much as possible. It was kind of his turf, you see. Daredevil had Hell’s Kitchen and most of Manhattan, that kind of thing. He ventured out into Brooklyn a lot too, due to the proximity and the fact that there wasn’t a superhero located there full time. Okay, so maybe he’d seen Hot Guy in Brooklyn, and he tended to come up with excuses to include the borough in his routine crime checking, so what? He didn’t have anyone to justify it to but himself (and his justifications usually ventured more into the denial territory). 

He was making his way through Highland Park currently. The trees were interesting terrain to swing through. They weren’t as good as buildings, since he could get better speed from the longer arcs that he could achieve on the tall edifices, but trees were still alright. He saw two men; one tall blonde guy had the other in a headlock. Normally he wouldn’t bother with something like that, but the brunet in the headlock threw his captor off of him and proceeded to attack the other guy. Both of them were good martial artists, but the blonde swiftly got the advantage, kicking the brunet in the stomach and forcing him back a few steps. 

When the shorter man stumbled into the beam of an overhead light, Peter suddenly recognized him. It was the Hot- uh, the guy from a few weeks ago! He’d cropped his hair shorter and it was tousled almost artfully atop his head. Peter took a half second to drool over it (the long hair was totally awesome, but he hadn’t realized that short hair would work on the guy too) before firing webs at the blonde. Unexpectedly, the man was able to twist around to escape them. Alright, time to get up close and personal. 

Peter launched himself bodily at the big guy, feet first. He squawked when the man grabbed him by the ankle and threw him onto the ground. The teen rolled to his feet easily, firing off multiple webs from the shooters at his wrists. The blonde avoided the blasts adroitly, moving closer towards him each time until he finally grabbed Peter by the arms.

“Wait!” he cried. “Why are you attacking me?”

Suddenly, Peter realized that the guy he’d been fighting was none other than Steve Rogers, AKA Captain America. “Ohmygod Captain America, sir. I… uh, I didn’t realize that it was you.”

Probably seeing that Peter wasn’t going to attack him anymore, Captain America (oh God it was actually Captain America in the flesh in front of Peter and _holding_ him this was so cool) let him go and backed up a step. “Alright, son, that doesn’t explain why you went on the offensive in the first place, though.”

Before the nineteen year old could respond, he felt a heavy arm drape itself across his shoulders. Glancing to his left, he saw the Hot Guy (oh lord please don’t embarrass yourself, Parker) smiling down at him. 

“I think I know what’s up, Steve. Spiderman here helped me out a little while ago with some muggers. In the dark it probably looked like you were trying to hurt me rather than just play around.”

“Bucky!” Steve cried, a huge grin on his face. “You didn’t tell me that you’d made a friend!” Captain America said the last line like it was a massive accomplishment, and he felt like throwing a party. The blonde made his way over to the two of them. “Sorry to get off on the wrong foot. I’m Steve Rogers,” he stuck his right hand out towards Peter, who took it hesitantly. Even with his super strength the way the man pumped his fist still jarred his shoulder. Wow, the Captain was pretty enthusiastic. 

“Uh, I’m Spiderman,” Peter replied lamely. 

“Yeah we can tell, buddy,” Bucky drawled, giving him a bit of a squeeze. The teen slowly turned his head towards the taller brunet. 

“Wait, Bucky…?” Oh shit. It was. Bucky Barnes, Captain America’s best friend, reformed Winter Soldier, etc. etc. Crap. He’d totally ‘rescued’ a guy who was probably ten times the hero he was. How embarrassing…

“Yeah!” Steve agreed, still radiating happiness from his huge grin. “Thanks so much for helping him out! It’s nice to know that he’s got backup if he needs it.”

“Um, no problem?” 

Bucky laughed. “Give the guy a break, Steve. Go take your crazy Captain-America-ness over to the bench and get some water.” Obediently, the blonde trotted away as directed. “Sorry about that,” the man said to Peter. “He can be a bit much sometimes. Thanks so much for saving me from him,” he teased. 

Peter slumped against the man’s side, partially out of embarrassment and partially because Bucky hadn’t let him go and he guiltily wanted to appreciate the man’s muscular body a bit more before he crawled into a hole and wallowed in his humiliation. “No problem,” he mumbled.

“Bucky!” Steve called from the bench. “We’ve got a meeting in twenty!”

“Right, well it looks like we’ve got to go, buddy.”

“Oh, right,” Peter responded, even though he didn’t really understand who would have a meeting at 12:30 at night. The Avengers, he guessed. “I guess I’ll just… go.”

“Wait!” the brunet patted himself down until he triumphantly found a napkin and a pen. He scribbled some things on the paper. “This is the address of our apartment here in Brooklyn. If we’re not there you can feel free to come over to the Avengers tower. In case you ever need a hand,” he said, before giving Peter the napkin. He held it like it was gold. 

“Oh wow! Thanks!” he exclaimed. He was holding the address of Captain America and super-hot-Bucky Barnes. Not being a creeper was going to be harder than ever. 

“No problem, man. Stay safe, alright?”

Peter nodded, and the other two took off swiftly. He stared down at the napkin for a moment before tucking it carefully into the neck of his costume, even though he’d already memorized the information on it. It didn’t hurt to be cautious. 

3.

Groaning, Peter flopped onto the couch, hiding his face against Bucky’s thigh. In the past couple of months, they’d become pretty decent friends and he’d eventually shown the man his real identity. “I’m never going to get a date,” he mumbled. Luckily, his friend had super hearing and could figure out what he was saying. 

“Didn’t go so well, huh?” Bucky asked sympathetically, placing his flesh hand gently on Peter’s head. 

“Nah,” he agreed, leaving it at that. In truth, Peter didn’t mind so much. The girl he’d been courting was nice enough, but she didn’t have anything on Bucky. He’d learned to navigate the man’s moods; the older guy was something of a puzzle at first. He was very touchy-feely with Peter, but only on good days. Other times, Bucky would stare off into the distance, probably thinking of all the crappy things that had happened in his past. On those days, the teen would leave him alone, sitting quietly in the same room but not bothering him. Today, however, was a good one. Bucky was relaxed, and at these times he was always receptive to physical affection. 

The younger guy knew that he was setting himself up for heartbreak. Allowing his crush on Bucky to grow to something unmanageable would be a mistake. His date hadn’t worked out because he kept comparing her to the soldier. Seeing his distraction, she had just smiled at him and told him that it probably wasn’t going to work out. He felt like a jerk. Peter groaned again and thumped his forehead on Bucky’s thigh. His muscle was hard enough that it might as well be a wall anyway. 

“Hey! None of that, buddy,” Bucky laughed, pulling him up and rearranging him so that he was sitting glumly, tucked up against the older man’s side. 

“I haven’t gotten laid in over a year and it doesn’t show any sign of getting better,” Peter complained miserably. 

“You think that’s bad?” Bucky chuckled. “I’m pretty sure the last time I got any was sometime in the 80s.” 

Peter’s head swiveled to the side and he gaped at his friend. “Three decades ago? But you’re…”

“Damaged? A bit insane? Emotionally unstable?” Bucky suggested. 

Peter scowled. “I was going to say hot as fuck, actually,” he said pointedly. Bucky blushed.

“Aw, thanks buddy. Still, most of that time I wasn’t exactly under my own power,” he muttered darkly. “Even since I got control of myself back, it just hasn’t been a priority, I guess.”

Peter hummed thoughtfully before jumping to his feet. “I know!” he cried. “I’ll go find you a date!”

Bucky looked baffled. “Um, Peter I’m not sure-”

“This is a great idea,” he said to himself, beaming. “Wait here! I’ll be back in no time,” promised the teen. Before Bucky could protest, he made his way to the elevator. Today they were in Stark Tower, fortunately. 

He pressed the button urgently, and Jarvis obligingly slid the doors open. “Widow’s floor please, J!”

“Of course, Master Spiderman.” He’d asked the AI to call him that to avoid people overhearing his actual name (plus it sounded kind of neat). Peter couldn’t help but grin every time he heard it though. 

The elevator swiftly dropped him off at the appropriate floor, and the brunet gleefully stepped through the doors. Natasha appeared to be cleaning her pistols, if the disassembled state of them and the rag in her hand were any indication. She glanced up at him. “Peter,” she greeted. 

“Hey there, Widow ma’am!” he saluted.

A corner of her mouth quirked upwards. She seemed to have a slight weakness for him being ridiculous. “What do you want?” Natasha asked, no nonsense. He didn’t usually make social calls to her, so she probably knew that something was up. 

“Well I just was wondering if you could to me a favor. A little one. Really, just a teeny, tiny one I guess-”

“Uh huh,” she cut him off, nodding at him to continue. 

“Well…” he drew the word out, suddenly realizing how ridiculous it was. “I was just hoping you’d be willing to go on a date with Bucky?”

“No,” she replied, immediately and firmly. Ouch.

“Hey!” he drew himself up, indignant on his friend’s behalf. “Bucky is a total catch! He’s really nice, and strong, and I think we both know he’s super good looking. Any girl would be lucky to go on a date with him!”

Natasha just stared at him. Peter couldn’t help but squirm a little bit. She was scary, okay? “You two are so pathetic it hurts sometimes.”

“That’s… kind of mean,” he pouted, a little stung. She rolled her eyes.

“Have you even _asked_ him if he was interested in going on a date with me?”

“Well, not exactly, but-”

“Hush. I changed my mind.”

“You did?” Peter exclaimed. He did his best to ignore the sinking feeling in his gut. It was a good thing that Natasha wanted to date Bucky. If he was a good friend he’d care more about Barnes getting with someone he liked, rather than hope he stayed miserable forever so that Peter could feel like he had a chance. 

“Sure. I’d be happy to go on a date with Bucky. Just one condition though,” Natasha smirked. 

“Okay… name it.” Peter was totally going to regret this. Was she going to make him be the target at shooting practice? Unmask himself in public? Crud.

“I’ll go on a date as long as you convince _him_ to do it.”

Phew. Off the hook. “Great!” he chirped. “I’ll just… go now and do that.” Peter fled the apartment quickly, returning to Bucky’s. As ordered the man was sitting on the couch exactly where he’d left him. The man quirked an eyebrow at the teen’s return, looking amused. 

“So how did the date-finding go?” he inquired. 

“It was fantastic. Total success. Natasha agreed to go out with you.”

Bucky’s face furrowed in confusion. “Natasha? Like, Romanov?” 

“Yeah,” Peter agreed. He sat down on the couch. “It was actually way easier than I thought. Maybe she has a crush on you? For some reason she seemed to think that the hard part would be convincing you to agree, but we both know that after thirty years you’re totally down, right?”

Bucky stared at him. “No. She was right. I’m not going on a date with Natasha.”

“What?” Peter cried, dismayed. “But why not?”

“Natasha’s… not my type.”

“How can she not be your type? She’s like, the hottest woman I know.”

“Peter,” Bucky sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I’m just not interested, okay?”

“Sure,” he said doubtfully, turning his attention sulkily towards the TV. Nothing interesting was on. There was a prolonged silence.

“I’m gay,” the older man blurted finally. Peter’s head snapped towards the brunet and he gaped a bit. _Oh_. 

“Crap, I’m sorry. Now I seem like a total jerk, pressuring you to go on a date with Natasha.” She’d probably known the whole time, which was why she’d only agreed if he could get Bucky to do it. Ugh. She could have just told him and saved him the trouble. 

“It’s fine,” Bucky assured him, looking relieved. Peter sometimes forgot that the man grew up in the thirties. Maybe he’d thought that Peter would be disgusted or something? That would be super hypocritical considering his raging bisexuality and all. 

“Huh, I guess I’ll just have to go see if Thor is free this weekend,” mused the younger guy.

Bucky blanched. “No! No more dates. I appreciate it, really, but just let me work this out on my own, alright buddy?”

Peter glanced at him slyly. “Does Steve know? I bet he’d be willing to team up with me on my epic quest to get you laid-” He cut himself off with a yelp when the man grabbed him in a headlock and gave him a noogie. “Okay, okay! No more dates. I promise!”

Bucky laughed and stopped ruffling his hair, and relaxed his hold on Peter’s neck so that they were just slumped together like normal. The man didn’t move to release him fully, though, and the teen couldn’t help but be a little hopeful. Now that he knew about Bucky’s sexuality, their casual cuddling took on a new meaning for him. That wasn’t fair though, he scolded himself. Just because the older guy was gay didn’t mean that he automatically liked _Peter_.

He curled himself up against Bucky’s side, sneaking his hands over until they were against the man’s abs (make that rock hard, sexy as fuck abs… Christ). Even though he didn’t have a chance with Bucky, it was still nice to appreciate the man while he could.

4.

Bucky’s stomach grumbled loudly. The two of them were sitting at the kitchen table in Bucky and Steve’s Brooklyn apartment, bickering back and forth about nothing important. Upon hearing the sound, however, Peter crowed triumphantly. “Aha! I told you that we should have gotten lunch.”

“Whatever,” Bucky muttered. He put a hand on his stomach like that would stop it from making hungry noises. 

Peter smiled. “That’s okay, you’ve got sandwich stuff, right? I can just make us a quick snack before we go.” For some reason the other man really hated making food (even though eating it was no problem). The teen had gotten accustomed to watching out for his friend, and making sure he didn’t let himself starve. It was kind of a guilty pleasure of his, a way of looking out for Bucky. The other man was too strong for him to need him to protect him in a fight. 

“We’re going to be late for the movie,” grumbled Bucky.

“Nonsense! It’ll take a few minutes.” Peter sprang up from his seat and cheerfully rummaged around, finding all the fixings. The bread, however, was on top of the refrigerator. The two freakishly tall super soldiers liked keeping it up there for some strange reason. He leaned up against the side of the counter next to the ‘fridge, and reached up on top of it, blindly feeling around for the bread box. No luck. Peter frowned, annoyed. Maybe he’d just jump up onto the ceiling and grab it from there. 

Before he could get that far, though, he felt a sudden pressure against his back. Bucky was leaning against him, no space between their bodies. The man’s flesh hand was on his hip, fingers dangerously close to Peter’s dick. He leaned forward, pressing his chest against the teen’s back. He could feel the man’s heat like a furnace through his thin sweatshirt. Bucky reached his metal hand above their heads, trapping Peter against the counter, and grabbed the bread. The man placed it in front of the counter in front of them, effectively wrapping both of his arms against the younger guy. 

“Here you go,” Bucky whispered huskily into his ear. 

Peter shivered involuntarily. The two of them were always close, but this was something different. The man was practically cradling him, pressed against his back like a lover, rather than a friend. He wasn’t backing up, either. 

“Uh,” Peter croaked hoarsely. He cleared his throat. “Thanks. Yeah, uh, sandwiches. I’ll get right on that.” He moved a bit and Bucky let him go easily. The teen blushed and worked with his hips against the counter, hoping that the older man wouldn’t see his erection. When he got himself under control, he turned around with the sandwiches in hand. “Here you go!” he said, sounding almost manic. 

For a moment, Bucky looked disappointed, but it was gone in an instant, replaced with a smile. “Thanks, buddy. You always take such good care of me.”

Still, the remaining time until they had to leave for their movie was a little stilted. Peter did his best to put it out of his mind. Bucky deserved better than a friend who was perving over him for dumb reasons like that. 

5.

The day had finally come when Peter was looking out more for Bucky than his own stupid self-interest. It was unfair to the man that he couldn’t keep himself under control and be a good friend, and so he’d decided to stop spending as much time with the soldier. After four months, it was time to stop thinking with his gonads and start thinking with his head. He was sure that the man would be disappointed in him, but Peter needed some time to figure out how to be a good friend instead of a total creep. Bucky deserved better.

After three days of not answering the man’s calls and only returning his texts intermittently, he figured he was doing a good job. Well, good in the relative sense. He was actually miserable, and felt like a jerk, and kind of wanted to go jump off a bridge or something, but the plan was moving along, at least. 

He hadn’t expected Bucky to be so stubborn though. Peter was sitting on his bed, fiddling nervously with the hem of his shirt. The man in question was sitting across from him on his desk chair. He’d shown up at his house and charmed his aunt, who’d let him in to talk to her nephew. 

“Hey, it’s been a few days, buddy. I got kind of worried,” Bucky said with a smile, but it looked a little strained. 

“Oh, sorry,” Peter replied miserably. He was a terrible person. Bucky reached out to put a hand on his knee, but Peter leaned back. He didn’t think he could keep up his resolve if the man was touching him. The older guy looked hurt. “Sorry,” Peter repeated lamely. 

“Did I do something wrong?” the man asked quietly. 

“No!” Peter exclaimed. “It’s totally me. I just… I just think that we’re spending a lot of time together recently and maybe we should… stop.” Crap. That had come out worse than intended. 

Bucky’s face shuttered off, until a blank look appeared on it. “Oh, um. If that’s what you want,” he said slowly, before standing up. Peter felt like his heart was breaking, but it might as well be now rather than later. Suddenly the man stopped and whirled around to face him. “You know what? No. This is silly. I don’t understand why you’re doing this.”

Peter was totally the scum of the earth. He looked up at the other man, feeling like he was going to cry. Dozens of excuses came to mind, but Bucky deserved the truth. “Buck,” he breathed. “It’s just…” Damn it was hard to say. “Can you sit down? The looming is kind of intimidating.”

Wordlessly, Bucky returned to his seat. Peter averted his eyes. “Bucky, I’m a terrible friend.”

“What are you talking about?” the man asked, exasperated. 

“This whole time… I’ve had this huge crush on you,” he blurted. Bucky looked like he smacked the man in the face with a hammer or something. “I thought it’d get better,” he continued frantically, “but it just got worse. Half the time when you’re hugging me, I’m totally being a perv and feeling up your muscles and stuff. Oh god, that sounds super creepy. It _is_ super creepy. I’m a creep. You should have a friend who isn’t just trying to betray your trust and get into your pants.”

Bucky blinked at him, looking completely flabbergasted. “You like men?” he asked.

“Uh, is that what you got out of all this?” Peter winced.

“You only ever went out with women!” he protested. “You never once mentioned liking a man.”

Okay, so at first he hadn’t wanted Bucky to go into straight-guy-panic about touching him, and then it had just been inertia. “Um, are you ignoring the whole being a weirdo freak thing?”

Bucky slapped his palm to his forehead; it was his metal one, so he must have been seriously irritated. “Let me get this straight. You think we should stop hanging out because you _like_ me?”

“Er… yes?” Peter tried.

“You’re an idiot,” Bucky muttered. “We’re both idiots. Natasha’s going to be insufferable.”

“O…kay,” he said, confused. Bucky stood up and grabbed Peter, manhandling him to a standing position. 

“I’m crazy about you, buddy. Haven’t you noticed that you’re the _only_ person I’m physical with like this?”

Peter thought back to all the times they’d cuddled on the couch, or hugged, or jokingly wrapped their arms around the other’s necks. Bucky would play-fight with Steve, but that was as physical as he ever got with anyone else. In hind sight, that along with the fond looks and indulgent touching made it pretty obvious that Bucky felt more strongly about him than just friendship.

“Oh,” the teen said sheepishly, looking up at his friend. Bucky gazed down at him, both exasperated and affectionate. 

“If I had _any_ indication that you were interested in guys, I would’ve made a move months ago.”

“A move?” Peter repeated dumbly, but Bucky was already moving forward, wrapping him up tightly in his arms so that he was forced to crane his neck upwards to keep eye contact.

“Yeah. Can I kiss you, Pete?”

He nodded as much as he could in the confines of the embrace, but it was enough. Bucky smiled and cradled the back of his head in his flesh hand before tilting his chin downwards and touching his lips to the teen’s. 

It was a fairly chaste kiss. Bucky took his bottom lip between his own, but neither of them moved to start Frenching or anything. After a few moments, the man backed up, putting an inch of space between them. 

“Alright?” he asked, looking just a touch nervous. 

“Definitely,” Peter breathed, before beaming. “Well… as a scientist, I believe in the repetition of data… We should probably try again just to confirm.”

Bucky chuckled before moving in again. “Baby, we can repeat this experiment as many times as you want.”

~

Fin


End file.
